Death toll in Vietnam flooding rises to 19

Flash floods in Vietnam have now claimed at least 19 lives, the government
said on Sunday (Jul 22), as residents in affected areas sought safety in higher
ground.

Boasting a long coastline, tropical Vietnam is battered by floods and storms
every year, with hundreds of lives lost from the annual monsoon barrage.

The remnants of Typhoon Son Tinh, now a tropical depression, made landfall
Wednesday night, the third tropical storm to hit Vietnam since the start of the
year.

The latest report from the country's disaster office said 19 people have
been killed so far, with an additional 13 people unaccounted for.

Floods and landslide from heavy rains have ranged far and wide and impacted
rural and urban areas, including the capital Hanoi.

They are expected to continue in the coming days.

State-controlled VNExpress news site reported Saturday that residents in
Chuong My district on the outskirts of Hanoi were asked to leave their homes
and get to higher ground for fear of heavy floods.

"We must be active in moving our furniture out of homes. From last year's
experience, we did not have time to run," a local resident was quoted as
saying.

Published photos showed homeowners in plastic raincosts moving bags of goods
and livestock.

"My house is in a very low location so I have to move all the rice to higher
places," resident Nguyen Duy Dong told VNExpress. "Since the afternoon, we have
moved more than one tonne of rice."

The amount of land under seige has also spiked, with more than 15,000 houses
damaged or destroyed and more than 110,000 hectares of crops inundated. Several
roads have also disappeared under the water.

Vietnam's rainy season, like other countries in the region, is between June
and November, but the death toll from stormy weather has often exceeded its
neighbors.

Last year, 389 lives were claimed by natural disasters, with material
damages reportedly reaching US$2.6 billion, according to the government.